The average size of the ozone hole over Antarctica has been alarmingly almost
as large as in 1993, the year the ozone hole depletion peaked. However, ozone
concentrations are higher than the record low values seen in September 1994.

The average size of the ozone hole during this year was
8.3 million square miles, similar to observations in the last
four years. The largest observed average size of the ozone
hole was in 1993, at 8.5 million square miles. This year the ozone hole
reached a one-day peak size on Sept. 7, 1996, of about 10
million square miles, then quickly shrunk to values of less
than 8.5 million square miles. The previous largest one-day
peak size hole was 9.4 million square-miles on Sept. 27,
1992. In comparison, the surface area of North America is
8.1 million square-miles while Antarctica has a surface area
of 5.4 million square-miles.

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